


Closure

by goddessofcruelty



Series: Under Pressure [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Brief Torture, Ceiling Vent Clint Barton, M/M, Mild Gore, Minor Character Death, Natasha is not happy, Nick Fury is an asshole, Secret Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 02:05:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1964802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddessofcruelty/pseuds/goddessofcruelty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha tracks down Nick Fury to get some answers.</p><p>Coda to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1716701">Erasure</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Closure

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: I need to know why Fury got rid of Clint. Why wouldn't Natasha have gone after her partner?  
> Prompt: What kind of thing is Fury going for? To get rid of Clint so Coulson can be director - he'd have to make sure Romanov never got to Coulson to demand answers - but the leak was unintended? Romanov did that herself - what else did Fury do? there HAS to be more, if that's the thing...

Just over six months later, Natasha stalks into Coulson's office and drops a ziplock bag on his desk. There's a single eye contained within. Phil flicks his gaze up to the stone cold face of the Black Widow and tilts his head ever so slightly.

“He won't be missing it.”

Phil closes his eyes briefly.

“He had a lot of interesting things to say though.” She pulls up a chair and straddles it backwards. “About you, mostly. And about the Winter Soldier.”

Coulson leans back, steeples his fingers. “Should Rogers be here for this?”

“Yeah. He's not going to like it.”

Phil turns to his left, lifts his eyes to the ceiling. “Agent Barton, would you be so kind as to retrieve Captain Rogers?”

There's no sound for a moment, and then they hear the soft scrap of leather against metal.

Natasha grins faintly and the mask of the Widow falls away completely. She's tired – no, _weary-_ and Coulson suspects it has something to do with her self-appointed mission to track Nick Fury down.

-

“ _People underestimate you.”_

_Nick doesn't look up from his beer. “Agent Romanov. Been a while.”_

“ _You're very good at hiding.” She settles on the bar stool next to him. “Fortunately, Director Coulson has known you a very long time. He remembered the time you brought him here.”_

“ _I'm surprised. It wasn't anything important.”_

“ _Not to him,” she agrees, turning a penetrating gaze on her former boss. “But we were in the process of retrieving other memories that had mysteriously vanished from his mind. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that.”_

“ _You found Clint then. Should have left him where he was.”_

_There's a flash of something indefinable in her eyes, but her control never slips. “You really think I wouldn't find my partner?”_

“ _Figured you had other things on your mind?”_

“ _Like what, rebuilding Shield?”_

_Fury snorts. “Though you'd be more distracted by the Winter Soldier.”_

“ _Cap had control of the situation.”_

“ _That's not what I meant, Romanov.”_

_Tasha's eyes narrow for the briefest of seconds, but Fury catches it, turns to look at her full on with his good eye, then he chuckles darkly. “Those sons of bitches. I should have known they'd take that from you. That was the missing piece.”_

“ _Fury.”_

“ _The name Dmitri mean anything to you?”_

_Her gaze never wavers. “I know a lot of Dmitris.”_

“ _Any of 'em you call Dima for short?”_

_Still no reaction. “Where you going with this, Fury?”_

“ _Didn't read your own damn file, did you?”_

_Natasha shrugs a shoulder. “I know whats in it.”_

“ _I don't think that you do.” He turns his face away from her, goes back to staring across the wooden bar. “Look for Dmitri, Romanov. Oh, and have Rogers with you when you do.”_

-

“Natasha!” Steve pulls her into a hug, and she tenses briefly, then lets him hold her for three seconds before extricating herself.

“Rogers,” she acknowledges with a quirk to her lip that tells Coulson just how fond she is of the super soldier. He wonders if she knows about Stark.

By the way she doesn't react when Tony follows Steve in and claims the bigger man's lap, he is given to assume that she did. Clint takes up a position to Phil's back and left, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. And now there are far too many people in his office, but it does happen to be the most secure place on the planet, so he pushes down his claustrophobia and lofts a brow at Agent Romanov.

“Stark.”

He mumbles something but doesn't look up at her from the tablet in his hands.

“Cross reference: Steve Rogers, James Barnes, Natasha Romanov, and...Dmitri Volkov.”

Stark must do so because there's a brief pause and then he's muttering curses under his breath as Steve rips it out of his hands.

“Natasha?” He looks up at her for conformation and she nods.

“May I?” Phil holds out his hand for the tablet but Tony does something and the screen of his computer lights up instead.

“Tash, why does that guy have the Winter Soldier's face?” Clint is leaning over Phil's shoulder as he looks at the side by side photographs.

“Because he is the Winter Soldier. Or at least he was when I was at the Red Room.” She looks up at Steve. “He was also, apparently, my husband.”

“Deja vu,” murmurs Phil as Steve hops up, displacing Tony who mumbles and then settles on the floor, flicking more and more files to Coulson's computer, before craning his neck up to look around. “Does everybody have secret husbands? Is this a thing? Because I-”

“Shut up, Tony.” Clint's voice holds barely restrained rage. “I hope Fury suffered for taking that away from you.”

“He didn't.” Natasha is calm now, she's had time to adjust. “He thought that I'd be chasing Dmitri after Steve told me who he was. But the Red Room wiped both of us. Paperwork has him listed as deceased and myself a widow.” She glances at Clint. “ _C_ _ _hyornaya vdova.__ Mystery solved.”

He pulls his lips tightly back in something resembling a smirk. “Well that's better than my theory.”

“Theory?” Coulson's lost the thread of conversation studying the files.

“On why she picked Black Widow. See it has to do with this-”

“Not now, Clint.” Phil eyes him, and the looks at Tony. “Stark, Rogers. Find the Winter Soldier.”

Natasha leans back as they leave, Steve herding Tony away from walking into the door frame.

“I'm assuming there's more.”

“There's always more. But this has to do with you, Coulson.”

-

_It takes her five hours to find every hiding place in Fury's chosen exile location, a single-wide trailer lost among a sea of others just outside Savannah, Georgia._

_He just sits there in the chair and bleeds the entire time._

_Once she's got everything from hiding, Natasha spreads all the things out in front of her on the carpet before him, and studies._

_She runs her finger along a photo, he and Coulson looking so young at Fort Stewart for boot camp; lifts the double set of dog tags on a finger, his and Phil's; and taps her nail on a Captain America trading card. There's a matchbook from France, train tickets from Germany, a whole lifetime of tiny moments divulging their secrets to her._

_She studies him for a long moment. He doesn't look back, well, because his eye is in her pocket._

“ _You never told him.”_

“ _Never.. a good.. time. Mission..comes first.”_

“ _Shield. And that's why you wiped Barton from his mind. You needed Coulson to take over Shield. And you wanted to be the only one for Phil.”_

“ _Spent my.. life with him.. Goes off.. gets married to.. a goddamned child..”_

_Natasha is silent a moment, then carefully gathers everything into a manila envelope, seals it, and then steps away._

“ _You always were a selfish bastard.” She presses Fury's own gun to the back of his head and unloads the entire clip into it. Calmly she grabs more ammo and does it again. Then she wipes the gun, sets it on the desk, grabs her envelope of goodies, and walks out the front door._

_When she gets the the car she's 'borrowed', Natasha presses a button and the trailer explodes._

-

Romanov reaches into her coat and pulls out the baggie of memorabilia and tosses it on Coulson's desk. His face softens briefly as he runs a thumb across the dog tags.

Clint sets his jaw.

“That son of a bitch,” Phil mutters under his breath, glancing briefly to the eye, and then back to Natasha.

“Thank you, Agent Romanov. If you'll be so kind.” He hands her the gory trophy. “Lets get rid of this. Whatever else he was, Nick Fury was the Director of Shield.”

She rises and nods, takes it from him and strides out the door.

Coulson sits down heavily, and Clint steps froward to put a hand on his shoulder.

“That son of a bitch.”

“You said that already, sir.”

Phil turns his chair and looks at Clint, reaches for him like he so rarely does, and buries his face in his husband's chest.

Clint strokes his hair, lets Phil get his grief out silently.

All too soon Coulson is pulling away, shoves Fury's bag of tokens into the wastebasket and heads out the door.

Clint knows he'll find him in the garden. He'll go get coffee, give Coulson a moment to himself before taking the hot beverage out to him

But first, Clint reaches into the trash, retrieves the bag of memories, and tucks it into the bottom drawer of Phil's desk.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if I need to tag anything.  
> 
> [Tumblr](goddessofcruelty.tumblr.com)


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